The most significant increase in enforcement powers in a decade forms part of major new legislation to crack down on water bosses polluting Britain’s rivers, lakes, and seas – and could see offenders in the dock and behind bars.
The Water (Special Measures) Bill has been introduced to Parliament and will give regulators new powers to take tougher and faster action to crack down on water companies damaging the environment and failing their customers.
The introduction of the Bill comes as Secretary of State Steve Reed met representatives from the water industry, investors, environmental groups and campaigners to out his plans to transform the water sector. He said: “The public are furious that in 21st century Britain, record levels of sewage are being pumped into our rivers, lakes and seas. After years of neglect, our waterways are now in an unacceptable state.
“Water executives will no longer line their own pockets whilst pumping out this filth. If they refuse to comply, they could end up in the dock and face prison time. This Bill is a major step forward in our wider reform to fix the broken water system. We will outline further legislation to fundamentally transform how the water industry is run and speed up the delivery of upgrades to our sewage infrastructure to clean up our waterways for good.”
The Bill includes significantly increasing the ability of the Environment Agency to bring forward criminal charges against law-breaking water executives. It will create new tougher penalties, including imprisonment, for water executives when companies fail to co-operate or obstruct investigations.
The new legislation will also ban the payment of bonuses to water bosses who fail to meet high standards to protect the environment, their consumers, and their company’s finances.
Other measures in the Bill include severe and automatic fines for a range of offences, including allowing regulators to issue penalties more quickly, without having to direct resources to lengthy investigations. It will also introduce independent monitoring of every sewage outlet, with water companies required to publish real-time data for all emergency overflows. Discharges will have to be reported within an hour of the initial spill. “
